A season ago, Methacton High’s Tahar Ferradji was just another Warriors wrestler with a record just under .500, a district qualifier who placed fourth at Section III and whose district experience lasted two matches.

But Ferradji has come pretty far since then, and Saturday when he took the top spot on the 220-pound medals podium at the Nazareth Invitational, he showed just how far.

After receiving a bye to the semifinals, Ferradji bested Nazareth’s Nick Burke, and then Council Rock South’s Ben Kenis in the finals to land the top prize.

“He wrestled really well,” said Warriors head coach A.J. Maida. “He did the things he does, and he did them very well.”

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The championship, while a surprise to some, was not a total shock to Maida, who saw signs in the off-season Ferradji was ready to take another step up.

“We saw it in May,” Maida said. “We went to a dual-meet tournament at Upper Perkiomen and he dominated and pinned a kid who had pinned him during the the season.

“He’s like a different kid.”

And he became that kid the old-fashioned way - by working hard.

“He goes extremely hard every day,” Maida said, “and he wants to be successful. Getting to districts last year, I think, gave him some confidence.

And he’s gone through a lot.”

Part of what Ferradji went through was a concussion, suffered in late June, that set him back. But his off-season featured very few setbacks on the mat.

“He went to MAWA Regionals and won two or three matches,” Maida said, “and he had a lot of success during the summer. And this weekend it wasn’t like he won the Little Sisters of the Poor Open.”

On the whole it was a very successful weekend for the fifth-place Warriors, who, along with Ferradji’s title, got seconds from Joe Staley (132) and Tracey Green (285) and thirds from Eric Straup (120), Dan Damato (145), Devin Bradley (170) and Mike Baccaro (195).

“Tracey wrestled real well,” Maida said. “He just so happened to hit the returning state runner-up (Nazareth’s Aaron Bradley, second at 220 last year) in the finals. The score was 3-1 late, and Tracey had to try something and wound up losing, 5-1.

“And Danny Damato matched his entire win total of last year (three). He looked real good. He battled a shattered clavicle and a broken vertebrae last year, but he’s healthy and he was real aggressive.

“Last year, when we cam back from this tournament, we didn’t have a wrestler with a winning record, so we’ve improved.”

In all, the local troops came out of the weekend with no fewer than 14 individual tournament titles.

At the local-filled Southeast Classic at Perkiomen Valley, Spring-Ford took first as a team, but North Penn earned three individual crowns - from Joey O’Brien (132), Alex Price (182) and George Shipp (220) - in finishing second, its best Southeast finish in quite some time.

“The boys did well, especially on the the second day,” said Knights head coach Rob Shettsline. “We had some tough losses, late in matches, on the first day.

“I really didn’t think we’d do as well as we did, we have a couple of holes in the lineup, but I knew we had the makings of a pretty good team.”

Near the top of the praise list was Price, winning at 182 after seeing his postseason end prematurely a year ago.

“He pulled a hamstring at districts, and he really couldn’t even stand up after that,” Shettsline said. “But he learned a valuable lesson about warming up properly before matches.

“We have a great group of kids, they’re well-behaved and they work hard. We’ve been doing the right things for a number of years, and it’s starting to pay off.

“Our numbers are up for our youth teams and our middle school program is doing well. I guess we’re on the upswing now. We may not be the best team around, but I feel we’ll be OK.”

Norristown did not return from the prestigious Ironman Tournament at Walsh Jesuit High School in Ohio with any gold, but neither were the Eagles embarrassed.

Brett Harner took third at 182 pounds, with his only loss coming in overtime to Eric Morris of Wyoming Seminary, the second-ranked wrestler at 182 in the country.

Zach Fuentes (113) also took third, with his lone loss coming in the second round, in overtime, to Chambersburg state medalist Tanner Shoap.